Donald Trump has signed a lot of executive orders in the short time since he’s taken office, but one of the latest is raising eyebrows as it clearly takes aim at one of the president’s personal pet peeves.
On Wednesday, Trump took a moment to sign an executive order to “make America’s showers great again,” and explained the personal stakes in pushing for better water pressure.
“I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he signed the order, calling the state of his current water pressure “ridiculous.”
“I stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out: drip, drip, drip.”
Trump continued: “What you do is, you end up washing your hands five times longer. So it’s the same water, and we’re going to open it up so that people can live.”
FILE – Donald Trump checks out hi
s hair on a large screen during a campaign rally at Ed Fry Arena in Indiana, Pa., on Sept. 23, 2024.
Rebecca Droke / The Associated Press
The executive order, titled “Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads,” rolls back previous energy conservation measures enacted by former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that aimed to save consumers money, reduce water waste and protect the environment by reducing water flow in showers.
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump will “end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure and make America’s showers great again.”
“Overregulation chokes the American economy, entrenches bureaucrats, and stifles personal freedom,” the fact sheet said.
Under Obama, and brought back by Biden, showerhead water flow was limited to 9.5 litres of water per minute. Now, Trump has directed the Energy Department to rescind the rule, which will lift restrictions on other water-using appliances like dishwashers and toilets.
“Americans pay for their own water and should be free to choose their showerheads without federal meddling,” the White House said in its fact sheet.
Showers account for about 20 per cent of the average American family’s daily indoor water use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Water-saving showerheads also save energy, since heating water accounts for about a fifth of the average home’s energy use.
Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), told The Associated Press that consumer reviews consistently show that most showerheads currently sold “provide a great drenching. So there isn’t a problem to be solved here with the showerheads available today.”
He called Trump’s order a gimmick designed to get around a 1992 energy efficiency law, and he predicted a similar result to Trump’s actions during his first term when no major showerhead manufacturer made significant changes to their products.
Trump turned up the pressure for better water pressure during his first term. In 2020, while the world was in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, the president took aim at showerheads, griping that the water wasn’t coming out fast enough.
“So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer?” he said at the time. “Because my hair — I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect.”
TRUMP: “So shower heads, you take a shower, the water doesn't come out. You want to wash your hands, the water doesn't come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair — I don't know about you — but it has to be perfect." pic.twitter.com/09xPsXSerU
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) July 16, 2020
And a few months earlier, he complained about struggles to flush a toilet.
“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,” Trump claimed during a meeting with small business leaders at the White House.
Trump’s changes to water pressure in his first presidency were rescinded by Biden when he took office a few months later.
— With files from The Associated Press
Trump complains about taking long showers to get his hair ‘perfect’
